Tag: sj

Philadanco Founder Joan Myers Brown Gives Up One Of Her Many Jobs

Brown, at age 87 still the company’s artistic director, will remain at least through next year’s 50th anniversary celebrations, but she has turned over the executive director position, on an interim basis, to administrator, professor, and former company dancer Elgie Gaynell Sherrod. Her main task will be stabilizing the company’s long-precarious financial situation; Brown has, over the years, lent Philadanco hundreds of thousands of dollars of her own money. – The Philadelphia Inquirer

A Longtime Political Artist Turns To Business To Drive Social Change

Tom Greyeyes’ art career started in a jail cell after an activist installation he created was considered vandalism by the Flagstaff police. Now the artist, who has had residencies and big gallery shows, and who has been featured on NPR, has pivoted a bit (though art and social justice are still involved): He is starting a graphic design business “that he hopes will help boost the economy on the reservation, provide jobs and give other Native American artists experience — and a steady income — creating logos and websites across the region.” – Arizona Daily Star

Kehinde Wiley’s New Statue In Times Square Directly Takes On Confederate Idols

Who could say it better than Philip Kennicott? “The old-fashioned, ceremonial unveiling of a statue is mostly extinct as a cultural spectacle. New art works are generally introduced quietly, amid white wine, canapés and polite chatter at exhibition openings. Now and then, perhaps a new museum may open with a ribbon-cutting. But Kehinde Wiley, the man who painted the portrait of Barack Obama that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, tried to reinvent the unveiling Friday afternoon in Times Square, complete with a brass band, gawking crowds, speeches by a phalanx of political notables and, finally, a few tugs on a shimmery silver cloth draped over his latest work, a monumentally scaled bronze equestrian statue.” – The Washington Post

Doyenne Of Black Dance Writers (And Maybe All Dance Writers) Takes On New Role: Curation

Eva Yaa Asantewaa “wasn’t looking for a curatorial position when she got a call from Gina Gibney, the artistic director and founder of Gibney, a performing arts and social justice organization that includes Ms. Gibney’s dance company and features classes and studio rentals. … ‘She had a whole plan mapped out,’ Ms. Yaa Asantewaa said. ‘It took me about two minutes to just say yes.'” – The New York Times

The Night Broadway’s ‘Slave Play’ Was Performed For An All-Black Audience

The producers of Jeremy O. Harris’s daring drama set aside all 804 seats on Sept. 18 for Black theatregoers, and they marketed the event almost entirely through direct outreach. Harris was thrilled by that night’s atmosphere: “People got out of their seats to go to the bathroom when they needed, people spoke, people laughed loudly, talked back, people (mon dieu!) texted with their ringers off and screens turned low. And the whole room felt free.” – American Theatre

Geena Davis Just Made Children’s TV More Feminist

“In 2012, after receiving a $1.2 million grant from Google and working with computer engineers and social scientists, Davis launched the Geena Davis Inclusion Quotient, or GD-IQ, a method of using facial and voice recognition technology to analyze movies, TV shows and ads. The software … is able to ascertain the number of women relative to men, as well as the amount of screen and speaking time they’re afforded. – The Washington Post

Women’s Place In The Art World: What’s Changed In The Past Ten Years? (An Investigation)

“To examine the evolving representation of work by female artists in American museums and the global auction market over the past decade, we not only delved into data, but also conducted extensive interviews.” This seven-part package includes data visualization, methodology, examinations of museums and the marketplace, interview excerpts, case studies, and a look at the difficulties facing working mothers. – artnet